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Natural_sciences | Lithospheric flexure
The lithospheric flexure (also called regional isostasy) is the process by which the lithosphere (rigid outer layer of the Earth) bends under the action of forces such as the weight of a growing orogen or changes in ice thickness related to (de)glaciations. The lithosphere is the thin, outer, rigid layer of the Earth resting on the asthenosphere, a viscous layer that in geological time scales behaves as a fluid. Thus, when loaded, the lithosphere progressively reaches an isostatic equilibrium, which is the name of the Archimedes principle applied to these geological settings.
This phenomenon was first described in the late 19th century to explain the shorelines uplifted in Scandinavia due to the removal of large ice massed during the last glaciation. G. K. Gilbert used it to explain the uplifted shorelines of Lake Bonneville. The concept was not retaken until the 1950s by Vening Meinesz.
The geometry of the lithospheric bending is often modeled adopting a pure elastic thin plate approach (sometimes by fitting the gravity anomaly produced by that bending rather than more direct data of it). The thickness of such plate that best fits the observed lithospheric bending is called the equivalent elastic thickness of the lithosphere, and is related to the stiffness or rigidity of the lithosphere. These lithospheric bending calculations are typically performed following the Euler-Bernoulli bending formulation, or alternatively the Lagrange equation (Love-Kirchhoff).
| 35175245 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35175245 |
Natural_sciences | Max Kleiber
Max Kleiber (4 January 1893 – 5 January 1976) was a Swiss agricultural biologist, born and educated in Zurich, Switzerland.
Kleiber graduated from the Federal Institute of Technology as an Agricultural Chemist in 1920, earned the ScD degree in 1924, and became a private "dozent" after publishing his thesis "The Energy Concept in the Science of Nutrition".
Kleiber joined the Animal Husbandry Department of UC Davis in 1929 to construct respiration chambers and conduct research on energy metabolism in animals. Among his many important achievements, two are especially noteworthy. In 1932 he came to the conclusion that the ¾ power of body weight was the most reliable basis for predicting the basal metabolic rate (BMR) of animals and for comparing nutrient requirements among animals of different size. He also provided the basis for the conclusion that total efficiency of energy utilization is independent of body size. These concepts and several others fundamental for understanding energy metabolism are discussed in Kleiber's book, "The Fire of Life" published in 1961 and subsequently translated into German, Polish, Spanish, and Japanese.
He is credited with the description of the ratio of metabolism to body mass, which became Kleiber's law.
| 35178539 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35178539 |
Natural_sciences | Mycoplasma haemomuris
Mycoplasma haemomuris, formerly known as "Haemobartonella muris" and "Bartonella muris", is a Gram-negative bacillus. It is known to cause anemia in rats and mice.
| 35184684 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35184684 |
Natural_sciences | Veneneia
Veneneia is the second-largest crater on asteroid 4 Vesta, at 52°S latitude. in diameter, it is 70% of the equatorial diameter of the asteroid, and one of the largest craters in the Solar System. It is at least 2 billion years old. However, it is overlain and partially obliterated by the even larger Rheasilvia. It was discovered by the "Dawn" spacecraft in 2011. It is named after "Venēneia", one of the founding vestal virgins.
Vesta has a series of troughs in the northern hemisphere concentric to Veneneia. These are believed to be large-scale fractures resulting from the impact. The largest is Saturnalia Fossa, approx. 39 km wide and > 400 km long.
| 35191826 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35191826 |
Natural_sciences | Quality Meat Scotland
Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. It promotes the red meat sector and markets the Protected Geographical Indication Scotch Beef and Scotch Lamb brands.
It was set up in 1990 (originally as the Scottish Quality Beef & Lamb Association) to provide assurance to industry and consumers that animals produced for the food chain met certain standards. It was established on a statutory basis in 2008, replacing the Meat and Livestock Commission.
| 35207083 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35207083 |
Natural_sciences | Los Angeles County flood of 2005
The Los Angeles County flood of 2005 was the first large flood in Los Angeles County since 1938. It affected communities near the Los Angeles River and areas ranging from Santa Barbara County in the north to Orange and San Diego Counties in the south, as well as Riverside and San Bernardino Counties to the east. Large amounts of rain in January caused the Los Angeles River basin to overflow. The Ventura, Santa Ynez, and Santa Clara Rivers also flooded.
Over of rain was recorded in downtown Los Angeles for the 2004-2005 rain season, marking the highest rainfall year since 1884. Ski areas in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains also received record amounts of snow. From December 27, 2004 through January 10, 2005, of rain fell on downtown Los Angeles, the wettest 15 day consecutive period on record.
Seventeen deaths were attributed to rainfall, and several hundred people were displaced by flooding. The worst incident was a mudslide at La Conchita in Ventura County which destroyed 15 homes and killed 10 people.
President Bush declared a state of emergency in Southern California to assist in recovery from flood damages estimated at $300 million or more.
| 35210899 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35210899 |
Natural_sciences | Kathleen C. Taylor
Kathleen C. Taylor (born 1942) is a chemist who won the Garvan–Olin Medal in 1989, and is notable for developing catalytic converters for cars. She currently works at Columbia University and consults for the United States Department of Energy.
Taylor attended Douglass College at Rutgers University, earning a bachelor's in chemistry in 1964; she completed her Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1968 at Northwestern University. She did postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh and then joined General Motors in 1970. Her work at GM on catalytic converters helped reduce pollution from car exhaust, following work done earlier by Eugene Houdry. Taylor at GM improved on existing catalytic converters to convert nitric oxide into nitrogen, instead of ammonia, a toxin to humans.
| 35264387 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35264387 |
Natural_sciences | Jökull
Jökull: The Icelandic Journal of Earth Sciences is an annual peer-reviewed scientific journal published jointly by the Iceland Glaciological Society and the Geoscience Society of Iceland. The journal covers all aspects of the Earth sciences in relation to Iceland, including meteorology, oceanography, petrology and geothermal research. The editor-in-chief is Bryndís Brandsdóttir.
It has been a victim of journal hijacking.
| 35266775 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35266775 |
Natural_sciences | Raymond John Moore
Raymond John Moore (1918–1988) was a Canadian botanist best known for his researches into "Buddleja" hybridization at the Blandy Experimental Farm in Boyce, Virginia, USA, and later at the Canadian Department of Agriculture Plant Research Institute in Ottawa, where he specialized in cytogenetics.
| 35272033 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35272033 |
Natural_sciences | Discrete debris accumulation
Discrete debris accumulation (DDA) is a non-genetic term in mountain glacial geology to aid identification of non-lithified sediments on a valley or mountain slope or floor. It is intended that the debris accumulation is discrete such that it can be mapped, in the field and/or from aerial or satellite imagery. The origin or formative process may well not be known clearly or be changed by subsequent investigators it is advisable to have a non-genetic field reference so that discussion can then be used to ascertain, if possible, the origin. Mountain areas may currently have glaciers (glacierized) or have had glaciers (glaciated) or be subject to forms of periglacial activity. A moraine would be an easily identified DDA as would an esker. Although scree (talus) is generally easily identified and mapped, these deposits may be modified by ice, avalanches or downlope movement to create essentially new landforms. Many small slope failures and landslides can give the appearance of moraines or protalus ramparts on slopes. After mapping as a DDA, further investigation might draw light on the origin of the feature.
The term was apparently first used by Sven Lukas for a very specific feature in Svalbard.
Independently, it was suggested in the literature in W. B. Whalley and subsequently in Whalley, 2012 as relating to the basic definition and usage as above. This book chapter provides several photographic examples.
The 'cirque infills' described by Hätterstrand et al. (2008) in the Khibiny Mountains, Kola Peninsula could be described as discrete debris accumulations, although their origin is postulated by these authors as being moraine remnants of an ice sheet pushing into these cirques rather than as rock glaciers formed within the cirques.
| 35273565 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35273565 |
Natural_sciences | List of biogeographical puzzles
This is a list of taxa whose location or distribution is notably difficult to explain; e.g., species which came to occupy a range distant from that of their closest relatives by a process or history that is not understood, or is a subject of controversy.
| 35277745 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35277745 |
Natural_sciences | Transstadial transmission
Transstadial transmission occurs when a pathogen remains with the vector from one life stage ("stadium") to the next. For example, the bacteria "Borrelia burgdorferi", the causative agent for Lyme disease, infects the tick vector as a larva, and the infection is maintained when it molts to a nymph and later develops as an adult. This type of transmission is seen in other parasites like viruses or "Rickettsia". In addition to ticks, mites are another common vector. Some sources consider transstadial transmission a type of horizontal transmission, whereas other sources consider it vertical or partial vertical transmission.
Transstadial blockage could be considered the opposite of transstadial transmission, where the parasite cannot be carried over from one life stage to the next. For example, viruses that undergo transstadial blockage will have decreased infectivity in molting insects.
| 35291570 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35291570 |
Natural_sciences | NGC 4980
NGC 4980 is a spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Hydra. The shape of NGC 4980 appears slightly deformed, something which is often a sign of recent tidal interactions with another galaxy. In this galaxy's case, however, this appears not to be the case as there are no other galaxies in its immediate vicinity.
| 35300215 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35300215 |
Natural_sciences | Kai-Ming Ho
Kai-Ming Ho is a Senior Physicist at Ames Laboratory and distinguished Professor in Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University.
| 35314773 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35314773 |
Natural_sciences | Edwin Hennig
Edwin Hennig (27 April 1882 – 12 November 1977) was a German paleontologist.
Edwin Hennig was one of five children of a merchant who died when Hennig was 10 years old. Starting in 1902, Hennig studied natural sciences, anthropology, and philosophy at the University of Freiburg in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany where earned a doctorate in 1906 with Otto Jaekel. This is where Hennig significantly contributed to research on the extinct genus Gyrodus.
Afterwards, he was an assistant to Wilhelm von Branca at Berlin’s Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, where he attained his habilitation and became a private lecturer.
During World War I, he was a military geologist until 1917 where he became a professor at the University of Tübingen and later an academic rector and director of the geological paleontology institute. Hennig later joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1937. In 1945, he was relieved of office and submitted to denazification. Hennig retired in 1951.
Edwin Hennig is well known for joining expeditions with Werner Janensch to the Tendaguru Beds in what is now Tanzania, East Africa. He is also known for describing discoveries of Australopithecus afarensis from East Africa, collected by Ludwig Kohl-Larsen.
Much like Othenio Abel, Hennig was a supporter of orthogenesis theories of evolution as was his assistant, Karl Beurlen.
| 35316733 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35316733 |
Natural_sciences | Flow meter error
In flow measurement, flow meter error is typically reported by a percentage indicating non-linearity of the device. This can be expressed as either a +/- percentage based on either the full range capacity of the device or as a percentage of the actual indicated flow. In practice the flow meter error is a combination of repeatability, accuracy and the uncertainty of the reference calibration. http://www.flowmeters.co.uk/liquid-flow-meter-performance-specification-glossary/
If a meter’s accuracy is based on a percentage of its full reading capability, the error is a fixed value. For example; an error of 0.5% of full scale, in a 100-gallon per minute (gpm) device is +/- 0.5 gpm. This is the uncertainty all of the time, so as you move away from the full scale capability, the 0.5 gpm error becomes a much larger percentage. At 50 gpm, you are risking a 1% error. At 10 gpm you have a potential 5% error.
If the device has an error expressed as a percentage of the actual flow, then a 0.5% error of 10 gpm is only +/-0.05 gpm; a 10 times better result.
| 35337586 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35337586 |
Natural_sciences | Deyrolle
During the 20th century, Deyrolle was a Parisian institution for natural sciences and pedagogy. It is one of the best known companies of entomology and taxidermy of Paris. Today, Deyrolle is a shop and a cabinet of curiosities open to the public, a reference in the field of taxidermy, entomology and natural sciences, whose vocation is to show the beauty of Nature. Deyrolle is also involved in pedagogy and art.
Deyrolle was created in 1831 by Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle, who was soon succeeded by his son Achille, at 46 rue du Bac in a building constructed in 1697-1699 by Jean-Baptiste Voille for a member of the Bruand family (Libéral Bruand). It was deeply transformed in 1739 by Samuel-Jacques Bernard, son of the banker of Louis XIV, Samuel Bernard (7 arrondissement). Beyond its scientific material, minerals collections, seashells, fossils, mounted animals and prehistoric tools, Deyrolle provides pedagogical charts to schools and universities in France, made to illustrate teacher’s lessons. ("Musée scolaire Deyrolle").
In 1995, the world famous painter Richard Marolle bought Deyrolle before selling it to Louis Albert de Broglie
In 2001 Louis Albert de Broglie bought Deyrolle and he restored the shop.
On February the 1st 2008, the Cabinet of Curiosities was destroyed by a big fire. The cause was probably a short-circuit. A big part of the rooms and of the collections has been destroyed: butterflies, insects, and animals (zebras, alligators, gazelles, bears, lions, shellfish and turtles). On May the 15th 2008, the building was already cleaned and the two rooms of the first floor reopened.
Some artists who contributed to save Deyrolle:
Jan Fabre - Nan Goldin - Jacques Grange - Karen Knorr - Marie-Jo Lafontaine - Claude Lalanne - François-Xavier Lalanne - Pierre Alechinsky - Yann Arthus-Bertrand - Miquel Barcelo - Pascal Bernier - Laurent Bochet - Sophie Calle - Johan Creten - Marc Dantan - Nicolas Darrot - Mark Dion - Bettina Rheims - Bernar Venet - Huang Yong Ping.
Deyrolle is well known for its pedagogical charts. It all starts around 1871, when Emile Deyrolle developed everything that concerns the educational material, anatomical models in staff, biology pieces, and most of all, the creation of coloured wall charts, published under the name "Musée scolaire Deyrolle". They are meant to teach the "Leçons de choses" ("Lessons of things") but also Botany, Zoology, Entomology, Geography, Anatomy, Civics, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Mineralogy, Biology, etc.
« "Visual instruction is the least tiring for the mind, but this education can have good results only if the ideas engraved in the children’s mind are rigorously exact." » Émile Deyrolle
In 2007, Louis Albert de Broglie restarts the publishing activity with the creation of new educational charts, to tackle contemporary environmental and societal issues. It is the start of a new collection of educational charts published under the name of Deyrolle pour l’Avenir (DPA). There are charts on sustainable development, climate changes, endangered species, renewable energy, etc.
Deyrolle is a reference in the field of taxidermy. We can find birds, beasts and mammals from all over the world. At Deyrolle, with only a few exceptions, no animal was killed to be mounted: the non-domestic species come from zoos, parks, where they died of old age or illness. They are traceable, and protected species are held and delivered in accordance with the Washington Convention (CITES).
Deyrolle is also known for its entomological collections. The drawers of the entomological room are filled with colourful butterflies, beetles, and other insects. It is possible to see the experts of the entomology team working on the mounting of insects.
The first aim of Deyrolle was to teach natural sciences to children and students, but Deyrolle was a point of interest also for artists: the surrealists André Breton and Salvador Dalí, the painters Jean Dubuffet and Mathieu, the writers Louise de Vilmorin and Théodore Monod, Raymond Queneau and many others stopped regularly at the shop.
Today, Deyrolle continues its proximity with artists and the shop welcomes a lot of exhibitions and events during the year: Bettina Rheims, Éric Sander or also Charwei Tsai was exhibited at Deyrolle. Woody Allen used the rooms of Deyrolle in July 2010 for his movie "Midnight in Paris", and Wes Anderson is a huge fan of the shop.
Deyrolle also develops collaborations with artists. We can mention Aurèle or Damien Hirst, for example.
In 2005, French singer Nolwenn Leroy shot the artwork for her album "Histoires Naturelles" at Deyrolle, as well as the music video for the single "Histoire Naturelle".
Some exhibitions:
| 35353877 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35353877 |
Natural_sciences | Masao Kitagawa
| 35368123 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35368123 |
Natural_sciences | Natural History Society of Northumbria
The Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) is a voluntary organization to promote the study of natural history and protect the wildlife of North East England.
Its offices and library are in the Great North Museum: Hancock, whose building, land and collections it owns. It leases them to Newcastle University, on whose behalf they are administered by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums. It possesses a substantial natural history library and archive and maintains the Gosforth Nature Reserve, one of the oldest designated nature reserves in North East England. It also carries out research and provides talks, field trips and educational courses, as well as publishing scientific papers.
NHSN has managed Gosforth Nature Reserve since 1929. This 1 km x 1 km wildlife refuge north of Newcastle upon Tyne includes a shallow lake with extensive reed bed, mixed woodland and small areas of wildflower meadow. The reserve is scientifically important for its uncommon flora and fauna, which includes bittern, kingfisher, otter, red squirrel, coralroot orchid and purple hairstreak butterfly.
The reserve has hides and boardwalks that enable visitors to view waterfowl, waders and reed bed birds at one of the most popular birdwatching sites in the Newcastle area. Woodland trails and a feeding station provide an opportunity to see a wide range of woodland birds, mammals and flowers. Access to the reserve is restricted to NHSN members or those who purchase a day-pass from the information hut upon arrival.
The Northumbrian Naturalist (known as the Transactions until 2009) has been published by NHSN since 1831. This journal contains scientific papers, research and observations about the natural world of Northumbria and is the only journal of its kind in the North East. Northumberland Coastal Wildlife is published in partnership with various conservation organisations who manage designates sites along the Northumberland coast. This annual report records the numbers of pairs of breeding birds on the islands, a bird ringing report and an account of all the rarities observed during the time the wardens are in residence. The latter also includes details about cetacean sightings, information on the Farne Islands grey seal colony, and an account of butterfly and moth records.
NHSN continues to provide a range of field trips, events and education courses designed to inspire wonder in the natural world, as well as informative public talks throughout the winter period. More recently, the organisation launched its 1829 Talks – delivered by early-career scientists studying at local universities.
NHSN remains active in conservation and research in North East England, advising on various committees concerned with the protection of the region's wildlife. Through bird ringing, biological recording and the giving of small grants in sponsorship of local environmental studies, it continues to be actively involved in monitoring the fortunes of local wildlife.
The organisation continues to support the development of young naturalists through its Student Naturalist Award Scheme and support via its Lantern Fund.
The key events in the history of the NHSN are as follows.
In chronological order (by date of demise):
William Loftus (c.1821–1858) was an English archaeologist and traveller.
Joshua Alder (1792–1867) was an amateur zoologist and malacologist specialising in tunicates and gastropods.
Albany Hancock (1806–1873) was brother of the ornithologist John Hancock and specialised in the anatomy of sea creatures especially sea slugs or nudibranchs, depicting them in minute detail. His watercolour drawings are held in the Society's archives.
William Chapman Hewitson (1806–1878) was a wealthy collector, particularly of beetles, lepidopterans, bird's nests and eggs. He built up an extensive collection of butterflies of the world and was an accomplished illustrator.
Grace Hickling (1908–1986) had a long association with the Farne Islands as a researcher and conservationist. She became the public face of the islands and played a key role in ensuring that they were recognised nationally for their importance as a habitat for seals and seabirds.
John Hancock (1808–1890) was an ornithologist, producing his Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham in 1874. His greatest talent, however, was taxidermy and his collection of mounted British birds can still be seen today in the Bird Gallery of the Great North Museum: Hancock.
Mary Jane Hancock (1810–1896) was an amateur botanist and enthusiastic watercolour painter, and the youngest sister of John and Albany Hancock. The Natural History Society of Northumbria holds over 60 of her paintings and more than 300 botany specimens from her personal collections.
Dr Marie Victoire Lebour (1876–1971) studied the life cycles of many aquatic organisms, rearing them from eggs to larvae and on through metamorphosis to adulthood, using the newly invented plunger jars which kept water flowing and full of oxygen. Her knowledge has contributed to our understanding of marine organisms from herring fish to single-cell diatoms.
| 35372106 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35372106 |
Natural_sciences | Raymond Laurent
Raymond Ferdinand Louis-Philippe Laurent (16 May 1917 – 3 February 2005) was a Belgian herpetologist, who specialized in African and South American amphibians and reptiles. He published more than 200 scientific articles and book chapters. Several species have been named after him, most recently "Phymaturus laurenti" in 2010. Additional species of reptiles named in his honor include "Chironius laurenti", "Liolaemus laurenti", and "Mehelya laurenti".
| 35389165 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35389165 |
Natural_sciences | Biomanufacturing
Biomanufacturing is a type of manufacturing or biotechnology that utilizes biological systems to produce commercially important biomaterials and biomolecules for use in medicines, food and beverage processing, and industrial applications. Biomanufacturing products are recovered from natural sources, such as blood, or from cultures of microbes, animal cells, or plant cells grown in specialized equipment. The cells used during the production may have been naturally occurring or derived using genetic engineering techniques.
There are thousands of biomanufacturing products on the market today. Some examples of general classes are listed below:
A partial listing of unit operations utilized during biomanufacturing includes the following:
Equipment and facility requirements are dictated by the product(s) being manufactured. Process equipment is typically constructed of stainless steel or plastic. Stainless steel equipment can be cleaned and reused. Some plastic equipment is disposed of after a single use. Products manufactured for medical or food use must be produced in facilities designed and operated according to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulations. Cleanrooms are often required to control the levels of particulates and microorganisms. Sterilization and aseptic processing equipment are required for production of injectable products.
Skilled professionals are required for positions throughout the life cycle of a biomanufacturing product, which includes:
Details for some of these positions are listed in “The Model Employee,” published by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. In addition, the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research (NCABR) maintains the website "About Bioscience" that offers free online videos on various careers.
Several academic institutions have developed curricula and built facilities to provide education and training in biomanufacturing to students from community colleges, universities, and/or industry. NCBioImpact, established in 2004, is an example of a comprehensive state-wide training network. Member institutions Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) at North Carolina State University, (BRITE) at North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina Community College System’s BioNetwork operate multidisciplinary centers dedicated to workforce development for the biomanufacturing industry.
MiraCosta College and Solano College in California developed the first bachelor of science degree in biomanufacturing. The degree is largely lab-based and is built on a contextualized science and statistics backbone. The upper division classes recognize the unique environment of biological production where the process sciences and technology thrive in partnership with quality and regulatory compliance.
| 35438992 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35438992 |
Natural_sciences | Magneto-inertial fusion
Magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) describes a class of fusion devices which combine aspects of magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion in an attempt to lower the cost of fusion devices. MIF uses magnetic fields to confine an initial warm, low-density plasma, then compresses that plasma to fusion conditions using an impulsive driver or "liner."
Magneto-inertial fusion approaches differ in the degree of magnetic organization present in the initial target, as well as the nature and speed of the imploding liner. Laser, solid, liquid and plasma liners have all been proposed.
Magneto-inertial fusion begins with a warm dense plasma target containing a magnetic field. Plasma's conductivity prevents it from crossing magnetic field lines. As a result, compressing the target amplifies the magnetic field.
The starships in Mike Kupari's novel "Her Brother's Keeper" are propelled in part by magneto-inertial fusion rockets.
| 35461390 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35461390 |
Natural_sciences | David Hirst (arachnologist)
David B. Hirst is an arachnologist previously based at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide. He left the Museum on 22 February 2011. He has described more than 40 species and genera in the Sparassidae (huntsman spider) family, and was regularly called on by New Zealand authorities to identify huntsman spiders that entered their country.
Hirst's work includes revision of many Sparassid genera including Delena, Holconia, Isopeda, Isopedella, Keilira, Pediana, Rhacocnemis, Thomasettia and Typostola.
Hirst has been a consultant in cases where spiders were said to have been found in bottles of wine from South Australia. The finders of the spiders were from the United Kingdom. In some cases he was able to rule out the bottles as the source of the spider because the specimens presented were not found in Australia. He however found a "Clubiona" sac spider more likely to have been in the bottle when filled because he was able to find the species present in wine growing areas.
| 35466480 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35466480 |
Natural_sciences | Birks' law
Birks' law (named after British physicist John B. Birks) is an empirical formula for the light yield per path length as a function of the energy loss per path length for a particle traversing a scintillator, and gives a relation that is not linear at high loss rates.
The relation is:
where "L" is the light yield, "S" is the scintillation efficiency, "dE/dx" is the energy loss of the particle per path length, and "k" is Birks' constant, which depends on the material. "k" is 0.126 mm/MeV for polystyrene-based scintillators and 1.26–2.07 × 10 g/(MeV cm) for polyvinyltoluene-based scintillators.
Birks speculated that the loss of linearity is due to recombination and quenching effects between the excited molecules and the surrounding substrate. Birks' law has mostly been tested for organic scintillators. Its applicability to inorganic scintillators is debated. A good discussion can be found in "Particle Detectors at Accelerators: Organic scintillators". A compilation of Birks' constant for various materials can be found in "Semi-empirical calculation of quenching factors for ions in scintillators". A more complete theory of scintillation saturation, that gives Birks' law when only unimolecular de-excitation is included, can be found in a paper by Blanc, Cambou, and De Laford.
| 35475501 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35475501 |
Natural_sciences | Herbert Gleiter
Herbert Gleiter (born 13 October 1938 in Stuttgart) is a German researcher in physics and nanotechnology.
In 1966, he received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Stuttgart in Germany. He received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 1988 for contributions to the field of nanotechnology. He became the Chair Professor of the Institute of Material Science at Saarland University, Germany in 1979. He has also held positions at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Bochum.
Since 2012, he is Director and Chair Professor of the 'Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience' of 'Nanjing University of Science and Technology' of Nanjing in China. In 2019, he received the Advanced Materials Laureate during the 30th IAAM Award Assembly. In 2019, he received the Advanced Materials Laureate during the 30th IAAM Award Assembly.
| 35487375 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35487375 |
Natural_sciences | Gravitational soliton
A gravitational soliton is a soliton solution of the Einstein field equation. It can be separated into two kinds, a soliton of the vacuum Einstein equation generated by the Belinski-Zakharov transform, and a soliton of the Maxwell-Einstein equations generated by the Belinski-Zakharov-Alekseev transform.
| 35489100 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35489100 |
Natural_sciences | Einstein–Rosen metric
The Einstein–Rosen metric is an exact solution of Einstein's field equation. It was derived by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in 1937. It is the first exact solution of Einstein's equation that described the propagation of a gravitational wave.
| 35489153 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35489153 |
Natural_sciences | Anatoly Rusanov
Anatoly Ivanovich Rusanov () (20 April 1932, Leningrad) is a Russian chemist.
He is a member of the Russian Academy of Science since 1990.
He is graduated from Leningrad State University and currently is the head of the Colloid Chemistry Department of St. Petersburg State University.
| 35493063 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35493063 |
Natural_sciences | Dmitry Kharitonov
Dmitry Evstratievich Kharitonov (; 1896-1970), also spelt Charitonov, was the first native Russian arachnologist. In 1916 he founded the arachnological school of Perm State University, the oldest arachnology research group in Russia. The culmination of his work was the comprehensive "Katalog der russischen Spinnen" (en: "Catalogue of Russian spiders"), published bilingually in 1932, with an addition published in 1936. He grew up under the supervision of Dmitry Mikhailovich Fedotov, an arachnologist from St. Petersburg. One of his postgraduates, T.S. Mkheidze, has been working in Georgia since the 1930s.
| 35502498 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35502498 |
Natural_sciences | Cabled observatory
Cabled observatories are seabed oceanographic research platforms connected to the surface by undersea cables. Such cables supply both power and telecommunications to instruments. By removing the limitations of undersea power sources and sonar or RF communications, cabled observatories allow persistent study of underwater phenomena. A single cable can support multiple observation sites via individual "drops;" multiple or branching cables may then provide data in 2D or 3D.
The extent of coverage is limited by the high cost of laying dedicated undersea cable. Initial experiments used abandoned communications cables; efforts are in progress to extend observations at lower cost by accessing more such cables.
Despite their advantages, cabled observatories can (and do) relay compromised data to scientists, particularly when located in remote parts of the ocean. Factors such as instrumental malfunction and biofouling are often responsible for this. Systematic improvements, to lessen the impacts of such factors, are currently being studied by groups such as Ocean Networks Canada.
| 35509452 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35509452 |
Natural_sciences | Photometeor
In atmospheric optics, a photometeor is a bright object or other optical phenomenon appearing in the Earth's atmosphere when sunlight or moonlight creates a reflection, refraction, diffraction or interference under particular circumstances. The most common examples include halos, rainbows, fogbows, cloud iridescences (or irisation), glories, Bishop's rings, coronas, crepuscular rays, sun dogs, light pillars, mirages, scintillations, and green flashes.
Photometeors are not reported in routine weather observation.
| 35516605 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35516605 |
Natural_sciences | S. T. Satyamurthi
S. Thomas Satyamurthi was an Indian zoologist who served as Superintendent of the Government Museum, Chennai and the Connemara Public Library from 1960 to 1978.
| 35525414 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35525414 |
Natural_sciences | Pulkovo meridian
The Pulkovo meridian, which passes through the center of the main building of the Pulkovo Observatory and is at 30°19,6‘ east of Greenwich, was the point of departure for all former geographical maps of Russia.
This meridian was used as the reference in the Russian Empire before the Prime meridian (Greenwich).
| 35536188 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35536188 |
Natural_sciences | Antônio Brescovit
Antônio Domingos Brescovit (born 1959) is a Brazilian arachnologist. His first name, Antônio (the spelling used in Brazil) may also be spelt António (the spelling used in Portugal). He develops academic activities at the 'arthropodae laboratorium' at the Butantan Institute, and he is a specialist in Neotropical Arachnida.
| 35540806 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35540806 |
Natural_sciences | Repulsive state
In quantum mechanics, a repulsive state is an electronic state of a molecule for which there is no minimum in the potential energy. This means that the state is unstable and unbound since the potential energy smoothly decreases with the interatomic distance and the atoms repel one another. In such a state there are no discrete vibrational energy levels; instead, these levels form a continuum. This should not be confused with an excited state, which is a metastable electronic state containing a minimum in the potential energy, and may be short or long-lived.
When a molecule is excited by means such as UV/VIS spectroscopy it can undergo a molecular electronic transition: if such a transition brings the molecule into a repulsive state, it will spontaneously dissociate. This condition is also known as predissociation since the chemical bond is broken at an energy which is lower than what might be expected. In electronic spectroscopy, this often appears as a strong, continuous feature in the absorption or emission spectrum, making repulsive states easy to detect.
For example, triatomic hydrogen has a repulsive ground state, which means it can only exist in an excited state: if it drops down to the ground state, it will immediately break up into one of the several possible dissociation products.
| 35548904 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35548904 |
Natural_sciences | John F. Eisenberg
John F. Eisenberg (1935–2003) was an American zoologist.
Eisenberg was born in 1935, in Everett, Washington. As a boy, he trapped and studied rodents, which intrigued him, so he decided to obtain a scholarship to study zoology at a university. He graduated from Washington State University and earned his master's and doctorate degrees in zoology at the University of California in Berkeley. In 1965, he took a position at the National Zoo and also taught graduate courses at the University of Maryland University of Maryland. He left the zoo in 1982, when he was the zoo's assistant director, to take a position teaching at the University of Florida University of Florida. In 2000, he retired and moved back to Washington State. Even during his retirement, he maintained his passion for mice and other rodents, and even went to Sri Lanka to study mammals of various sizes, including elephants. He was married and divorced 2 times. He died on July 6, 2003 at the age of 68 at his home in Bellingham, Washington.
| 35553315 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35553315 |
Natural_sciences | Richard E. Grant (paleontologist)
Richard E. Grant (1927–1994) was an American paleontologist.
Grant was born in 1927. From 1972 till his death he served as a Chairman, Curator, and a Senior Geologist in the Department of Paleobiology and National Museum of Natural History. He is most famous for studying Brachiopods of Permian period in 1979. He died in 1994.
| 35554613 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35554613 |
Natural_sciences | Sklodowskite
Sklodowskite is a uranium mineral with the chemical formula: Mg(UO)(HSiO)·5HO. It is a secondary mineral which contains magnesium and is a bright yellow colour, its crystal habit is acicular, but can form in other shapes. It has a Mohs hardness of about 2-3.
It is named after the maiden name of Marie Skłodowska Curie. It is the magnesium analogue of the much more common uranium mineral Cuprosklodowskite, which contains copper instead.
It was discovered by (1881–1966) in 1924.
| 35571278 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35571278 |
Natural_sciences | Ramiflory
In plant biology, ramiflory is the production of fruit and flowers on the woody branches of a plant, formed in a previous season. The corresponding condition for the trunk of the plant is known as cauliflory.
| 35571378 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35571378 |
Natural_sciences | Hilbrand Boschma
Hilbrand Boschma (22 April 1893 – 22 July 1976) was a Dutch zoologist and director of the Rijksmuseum of Natural History in Leiden.
Boschma studied botany and zoology at the University of Amsterdam. He went to the former Dutch East Indies, where he studied embryology, functional morphology in reptiles and amphibians, and stony corals. He joined a Danish expedition to the Kai Islands in 1922 as an associate of the Danish zoologist Dr. Th. Mortensen and sampled and studied corals. He is taxon author of (among other invertebrate organisms) several different species of fire corals.
Thereafter Boschma went back to The Netherlands to take up the post of chief assistant at the Zoological Laboratory of the State University at Leiden. In 1925 he started giving lectures in general zoology for medical students, and in 1931 he became professor of general zoology.
In 1934 Boschma became director of the Rijksmuseum of Natural History in Leiden. He was the first director who was specialized in invertebrate animals. He was also a Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1946, Foreign Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, Honorary Foreign Member of the "Société zoologique de France", and member of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.
He retired at age 65 in 1958, but continued giving lectures until 1963 and writing scientific articles until 1974.
Boschma is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of reptile ("Cryptophis boschmai" and "Draco boschmai"), a lobster ("Metanephrops boschmai"), and a fish ("Lophichthys boschmai").
| 35571520 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35571520 |
Natural_sciences | Spondylo-meta-epiphyseal dysplasia
Spondylo-meta-epiphyseal dysplasia (SMED) is a rare autosomal-recessive disease which causes skeletal disorders. SMED is thought to be caused by a mutation in the Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 (DDR2) gene.
| 35594200 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35594200 |
Natural_sciences | Franz Joseph Hugi
Franz Joseph Hugi (1791–1855) was a Swiss geologist and teacher who was called the "father of winter mountaineering," and was author of two pioneer works on glacier phenomena.
| 35613537 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35613537 |
Natural_sciences | Tarpeia (crater)
Tarpeia is a crater on the asteroid 4 Vesta located at 69.5°S and 29°E, within the ridged and grooved terrain of Vesta's southern hemisphere. It has a diameter of 41 km. It is irregularly shaped and has a sharp, fresh rim. It contains many small craters less than a kilometer across and its steep slopes shows brilliant layers of minerals.
It was named after Tarpeia, a maiden from Roman mythology, on 27 December 2011.
| 35624344 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35624344 |
Natural_sciences | Forecast verification
Forecast verification is a subfield of the climate, atmospheric and ocean sciences dealing with validating, verifying and determining the predictive power of prognostic model forecasts. Because of the complexity of these models, forecast verification goes a good deal beyond simple measures of statistical association or mean error calculations.
To determine the value of a forecast, we need to measure it against some baseline, or minimally accurate forecast. There are many types of forecast that, while producing impressive-looking skill scores, are nonetheless naive. A "persistence" forecast can still rival even those of the most sophisticated models. An example is: "What is the weather going to be like today? Same as it was yesterday." This could be considered analogous to a "control" experiment. Another example would be a climatological forecast: "What is the weather going to be like today? The same as it was, on average, for all the previous days this time of year for the past 75 years".
The second example suggests a good method of normalizing a forecast before applying any skill measure. Most weather situations will cycle, since the Earth is forced by a highly regular energy source. A numerical weather model must accurately model both the seasonal cycle and (if finely resolved enough) the diurnal cycle. This output, however, adds no information content, since the same cycles are easily predicted from climatological data. Climatological cycles may be removed from both the model output and the "truth" data. Thus, the skill score, applied afterward, is more meaningful.
One way of thinking about it is, "how much does the forecast reduce our "uncertainty"?"
Christensen et al. (1981) used entropy minimax entropy minimax pattern discovery based on information theory to advance the science of long range weather prediction. Previous computer models of weather were based on persistence alone and reliable to only 5-7 days into the future. Long range forecasting was essentially random. Christensen et al. demonstrated the ability to predict the probability that precipitation will be below or above average with modest but statistically significant skill one, two and even three years into the future. Notably, this pioneering work discovered the influence of El Nino El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on U.S. weather forecasting.
Tang et al. (2005)
used the conditional entropy to characterize the uncertainty of ensemble predictions of the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO):
where "p" is the ensemble distribution and "q" is the climatological distribution.
The World Meteorological Organization maintains a webpage on forecast verification.
For more in-depth information on how to verify forecasts see the book by Jolliffe and Stephenson or the book chapter by Daniel Wilks.
| 35632302 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35632302 |
Natural_sciences | Vibidia (crater)
Vibidia is a crater on the asteroid 4 Vesta located at 26.9°S and 139.9°W. It has a diameter of 7.1 km. There is a distinctive ray-like pattern of bright and dark material, with the bright rays extending circularly for 15 km around Vibidia, and the dark rays mostly restricted to within the crater and on the rim. The rays cut across older craters, whereas a few younger craters have formed on top of them.
It was named after the Roman Vestal Virgin Vibidia on 27 December 2011.
| 35635251 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35635251 |
Natural_sciences | Szymon Syrski
Szymon Syrski (24 October 1824, Łubnie – 13 January 1882, Lwów) was a Polish zoologist. He was a professor of zoology at Lviv University.
| 35637621 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35637621 |
Natural_sciences | Paul Géroudet
Paul Géroudet (1917–2006) was a notable Swiss ornithologist. He was the chief editor of Nos Oiseaux from 1939 to 1994.
| 35645642 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35645642 |
Natural_sciences | Aethrioscope
An aethrioscope (or æthrioscope) is a meteorological device invented by Sir John Leslie in 1818 for measuring the chilling effect of a clear sky. The name is from the Greek word for clear – "αίθριος".
It consists of a metallic cup standing upon a tall hollow pedestal, with a differential thermometer placed so that one of its bulbs is in the focus of the paraboloid formed by the cavity of the cup. The interior of the cup is highly polished and is kept covered by a plate of metal, being opened when an observation is made. The second bulb is always screened from the sky and so is not affected by the radiative effect of the clear sky, the action of which is concentrated upon the first bulb. The contraction of the air in the second bulb by its sudden exposure to a clear sky causes the liquid in the stem to rise.
The device will respond in a contrary fashion when exposed to heat radiation and so may be used as a pyrometer too.
| 35650011 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35650011 |
Natural_sciences | Richard Blome
Richard Blome (1635-1705) was an engraver, cartographer, and publisher in the Kingdom of England.
Richard Blome's cartography flourished in the second half of the seventeenth century. He produced a great number of maps, but none were original, and he was often accused of plagiarism although usually made no attempt to hide his sources. His maps were attractive and quaintly designed, and they still retain their nostalgic look.
Blome's series of county maps were combined in the "Britannia", based on the latest editions of mapmaker, John Speed, and was published in 1673 but was not a success. It was followed in 1681 by an issue of smaller maps entitled "Speed's Maps Epitomiz'd". Most of his work was engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar, "Richard Palmer", and "Francis Lamb", and embellished with dedications to county dignitaries which were added or omitted in later editions.
| 35672193 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35672193 |
Natural_sciences | Orlando Mendes
Orlando Marques de Almeida Mendes (Island of Mozambique, August 4, 1916 – Maputo, January 11, 1990) was a Mozambican biologist and writer.
He lived the Portuguese decolonisation of Mozambique. In 1944, he moved with his wife and daughter to Coimbra, where he studied biology at the University of Coimbra.
He worked as a biologist in Lourenço Marques and wrote for several publications such as: "Tempo", "Itinerário", "Vértice" and "África". In spite of being European, he strongly criticized colonial treatment towards black people and Salazar's administration. During the Portuguese Colonial War, he was with FRELIMO nationalist party.
| 35681165 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35681165 |
Natural_sciences | Extremotroph
An extremotroph (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "food") is an organism that feeds on matter that is not typically considered to be food to most life on Earth. "These anthropocentric definitions that we make of extremophily and extremotrophy focus on a single environmental extreme but many extremophiles may fall into multiple categories, for example, organisms living inside hot rocks deep under the Earth's surface."
Extremotrophs are used as bioremediation and biodegradation agents.
| 35689039 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35689039 |
Natural_sciences | Particle deposition
Particle deposition is the spontaneous attachment of particles to surfaces. The particles in question are normally colloidal particles, while the surfaces involved may be planar, curved, or may represent particles much larger in size than the depositing ones (e.g., sand grains). Deposition processes may be triggered by appropriate hydrodynamic flow conditions and favorable particle-surface interactions. Depositing particles may just form a monolayer which further inhibits additional particle deposition, and thereby one refers to "surface blocking". Initially attached particles may also serve as seeds for further particle deposition, which leads to the formation of thicker particle deposits, and this process is termed as "surface ripening" or "fouling". While deposition processes are normally irreversible, initially deposited particles may also detach. The latter process is known as "particle release" and is often triggered by the addition of appropriate chemicals or a modification in flow conditions.
Microorganisms may deposit to surfaces in a similar fashion as colloidal particles. When macromolecules, such as proteins, polymers or polyelectrolytes attach to surfaces, one rather calls this process adsorption. While adsorption of macromolecules largely resembles particle deposition, macromolecules may substantially deform during adsorption. The present article mainly deals with particle deposition from liquids, but similar process occurs when aerosols or dust deposit from the gas phase.
A particle may diffuse to a surface in quiescent conditions, but this process is inefficient as a thick depletion layer develops, which leads to a progressive slowing down of the deposition. When particle deposition is efficient, it proceeds almost exclusively in a system under flow. In such conditions, the hydrodynamic flow will transport the particles close to the surface. Once a particle is situated close to the surface, it will attach spontaneously, when the particle-surface interactions are attractive. In this situation, one refers to "favorable deposition conditions". When the interaction is repulsive at larger distances, but attractive at shorter distances, deposition will still occur but it will be slowed down. One refers to "unfavorable deposition conditions" here. The initial stages of the deposition process can be described with the rate equation
where Γ is the number density of deposited particles, "t" is the time, "c" the particle number concentration, and "k" the deposition rate coefficient. The rate coefficient depends on the flow velocity, flow geometry, and the interaction potential of the depositing particle with the substrate. In many situations, this potential can be approximated by a superposition of attractive van der Waals forces and repulsive electrical double layer forces and can be described by DLVO theory. When the charge of the particles is of the same sign as the substrate, deposition will be favorable at high salt levels, while it will be unfavorable at lower salt levels. When the charge of the particles is of the opposite sign as the substrate, deposition is favorable for all salt levels, and one observes a small enhancement of the deposition rate with decreasing salt level due to attractive electrostatic double layer forces. Initial stages of the deposition process are relatively similar to the early stages of particle heteroaggregation, whereby one of the particles is much larger than the other.
When depositing particles repel each other, the deposition will stop by the time when enough particles have deposited. At one point, such a surface layer will repel any particles that may still make attempts to deposit. The surface is said to be "saturated" or "blocked" by the deposited particles. The blocking process can be described by the following equation
where "B"(Γ) is the surface blocking function. When there are no deposited particles, Γ = 0 and "B"(0) = 1. With increasing number density of deposited particles, the blocking function decreases. The surface saturates at Γ=Γ and "B"(Γ) = 0. The simplest blocking function is
and it is referred to as the Langmuir blocking function, as it is related to the Langmuir isotherm.
The blocking process has been studied in detail in terms of the "random sequential adsorption" (RSA) model. The simplest RSA model related to deposition of spherical particles considers irreversible adsorption of circular disks. One disk after another is placed randomly at a surface. Once a disk is placed, it sticks at the same spot, and cannot be removed. When an attempt to deposit a disk would result in an overlap with an already deposited disk, this attempt is rejected. Within this model, the surface is initially filled rapidly, but the more one approaches saturation the slower the surface is being filled. Within the RSA model, saturation is referred to as jamming. For circular disks, jamming occurs at a coverage of 0.547. When the depositing particles are polydisperse, much higher surface coverage can be reached, since the small particles will be able to deposit into the holes in between the larger deposited particles. On the other hand, rod like particles may lead to much smaller coverage, since a few misaligned rods may block a large portion of the surface.
Since the repulsion between particles in aqueous suspensions originates from electric double layer forces, the presence of salt has an important effect on surface blocking. For small particles and low salt, the diffuse layer will extend far beyond the particle, and thus create an exclusion zone around it. Therefore, the surface will be blocked at a much lower coverage than what would be expected based on the RSA model. At higher salt and for larger particles, this effect is less important, and the deposition can be well described by the RSA model.
When the depositing particles attract each other, they will deposit and aggregate at the same time. This situation will result in a porous layer made of particle aggregates at the surface, and is referred to as ripening. The porosity of this layer will depend whether the particle aggregation process is fast or slow. Slow aggregation will lead to a more compact layer, while fast aggregation to a more porous one. The structure of the layer will resemble the structure of the aggregates formed in the later stages of the aggregation process.
Particle deposition can be followed by various experimental techniques. Direct observation of deposited particles is possible with an optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, or the atomic force microscope. Optical microscopy has the advantage that the deposition of particles can be followed in real time by video techniques and the sequence of images can be analyzed quantitatively. On the other hand, the resolution of optical microscopy requires that the particle size investigated exceeds at least 100 nm.
An alternative is to use surface sensitive techniques to follow particle deposition, such as reflectivity, ellipsometry, surface plasmon resonance, or quartz crystal microbalance. These techniques can provide information on the amount of particles deposited as a function of time with good accuracy, but they do not permit to obtain information concerning the lateral arrangement of the particles.
Another approach to study particle deposition is to investigate their transport in a chromatographic column. The column is packed with large particles or with a porous medium to be investigated. Subsequently, the column is flushed with the solvent to be investigated, and the suspension of the small particles is injected at the column inlet. The particles are detected at the outlet with a standard chromatographic detector. When particles deposit in the porous medium, they will not arrive at the outlet, and from the observed difference the deposition rate coefficient can be inferred.
Particle deposition occurs in numerous natural and industrial systems. Few examples are given below.
| 35696465 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35696465 |
Natural_sciences | Ernst Suffert
Ernst Suffert (fl. 1900) was a German entomologist who specialised in studies of Lepidoptera. He is not to be confused with Fritz Süffert, who was also a German lepidopterist.
Ernst Suffert described many new species of African butterflies and moths, including "Papilio chrapkowskii", "Papilio filaprae", "Mylothris ertli" and "Mylothris schumanni". His collection was purchased by James John Joicey.
| 35706568 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35706568 |
Natural_sciences | Fritz Süffert
Fritz Süffert (1891–1945) was a German entomologist who specialised in studies of butterflies. He is not to be confused with Ernst Suffert, who was also a German lepidopterist.
Fritz Süffert was an expert on adaptive colouration. He died in the Battle of Berlin.
| 35706608 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35706608 |
Natural_sciences | Anton Polenec
Anton Polenec (7 October 1910 – 30 October 2000) was a Slovene zoologist and specialist arachnologist.
Polenec was born in Puštal near Škofja Loka in 1910. He studied at the University of Ljubljana and later taught zoology and was head of the Natural History Museum of Slovenia from 1955 to 1980. He studied and described over 500 species of spiders including a new genus "Centrophantes". The spider genus "Polenecia" is named after Polenec.
Apart from scientific contributions he also wrote numerous popular science books for young readers and won the Levstik Award twice, in 1950 for his book "Iz življenja žuželk" (The Lives of Insects) and in 1952 for "Iz življenja pajkov" (The Life of Spiders).
| 35715592 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35715592 |
Natural_sciences | Chirp mass
In astrophysics the chirp mass of a compact binary system determines the leading-order orbital evolution of the system as a result of energy loss from emitting gravitational waves. Because the gravitational wave frequency is determined by orbital frequency, the chirp mass also determines the frequency evolution of the gravitational wave signal emitted during a binary's inspiral phase. In gravitational wave data analysis it is easier to measure the chirp mass than the two component masses alone.
A two-body system with component masses formula_1 and formula_2 has a chirp mass of
The chirp mass may also be expressed in terms of the total mass of the system formula_4 and other common mass parameters:
In general relativity, the phase evolution of a binary orbit can be computed using a post-Newtonian expansion, a perturbative expansion in powers of the orbital velocity formula_20. The first order gravitational wave frequency, formula_21, evolution is described by the differential equation
where formula_23 and formula_24 are the speed of light and Newton's gravitational constant, respectively.
Integrating equation () with respect to time gives:
where C is the constant of integration. Furthermore, on identifying formula_27 and formula_28, the chirp mass can be calculated from the slope of the line fitted through the data points (x, y).
To disentangle the individual component masses in the system one must additionally measure higher order terms in the post-Newtonian expansion.
| 35733284 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35733284 |
Natural_sciences | Capped square antiprismatic molecular geometry
In chemistry, the capped square antiprismatic molecular geometry describes the shape of compounds where nine atoms, groups of atoms, or ligands are arranged around a central atom, defining the vertices of a gyroelongated square pyramid.
The gyroelongated square pyramid is a square pyramid with a square antiprism connected to the square base. In this respect, it can be seen as a "capped" square antiprism (a square antiprism with a pyramid erected on one of the square faces).
It is very similar to the tricapped trigonal prismatic molecular geometry, and there is some dispute over the specific geometry exhibited by certain molecules.
| 35740250 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35740250 |
Natural_sciences | Incyte
Incyte Corp is an American pharmaceutical company based in Alapocas, Delaware. The company was founded in Palo Alto, California in 1991 and went public in 1993.
Incyte has one drug, Jakafi, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has been prescribed to patients in the United States.
As of 2014, the company was developing baricitinib, an oral JAK1 and JAK2 inhibitor drug for rheumatoid arthritis in partnership with Eli Lilly. It gained EU approval in February 2017. In April 2017, the US FDA issued a rejection, citing concerns about dosing and safety.
As of 2016 epacadostat, an indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) inhibitor, was in development for various cancers and was in combination trials with Merck's pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and Bristol Myers Squibb's nivolumab (Opdivo).
Novartis acquired Incyte's c-Met inhibitor capmatinib (INC280, INCB028060), which is in Phase II clinical trial as monotherapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
In 2014, Incyte named Hervé Hoppenot president and CEO. Hoppenot had previously served as the president of Novartis Oncology; he had been with Novartis since 2003.
In September 2015, the company announced it had gained exclusive development and commercial right pertaining to Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd's anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, SHR-1210, in a deal worth $795+ million.
In January 2020, Incyte signed a collaboration and license agreement for the global development and commercialization of tafasitamab with MorphoSys. On March 3, 2020, the agreement received antitrust clearance and thus became effective.
| 35741235 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35741235 |
Natural_sciences | Bioconcentration
Bioconcentration is the accumulation of a chemical in or on an organism when the source of chemical is solely water. Bioconcentration is a term that was created for use in the field of aquatic toxicology. Bioconcentration can also be defined as the process by which a chemical concentration in an aquatic organism exceeds that in water as a result of exposure to a waterborne chemical.
There are several ways in which to measure and assess bioaccumulation and bioconcentration. These include: octanol-water partition coefficients (K), bioconcentration factors (BCF), bioaccumulation factors (BAF) and biota-sediment accumulation factor (BSAF). Each of these can be calculated using either empirical data or measurements as well as from mathematical models. One of these mathematical models is a fugacity-based BCF model developed by Don Mackay.
Bioconcentration factor can also be expressed as the ratio of the concentration of a chemical in an organism to the concentration of the chemical in the surrounding environment. The BCF is a measure of the extent of chemical sharing between an organism and the surrounding environment.
In surface water, the BCF is the ratio of a chemical's concentration in an organism to the chemical's aqueous concentration. BCF is often expressed in units of liter per kilogram (ratio of mg of chemical per kg of organism to mg of chemical per liter of water). BCF can simply be an observed ratio, or it can be the prediction of a partitioning model. A partitioning model is based on assumptions that chemicals partition between water and aquatic organisms as well as the idea that chemical equilibrium exists between the organisms and the aquatic environment in which it is found
Bioconcentration can be described by a bioconcentration factor (BCF), which is the ratio of the chemical concentration in an organism or biota to the concentration in water:
formula_1
Bioconcentration factors can also be related to the octanol-water partition coefficient, K. The octanol-water partition coefficient (K) is correlated with the potential for a chemical to bioaccumulate in organisms; the BCF can be predicted from log K, via computer programs based on structure activity relationship (SAR) or through the linear equation:
formula_2
Where:
formula_3 at equilibrium
Fugacity and BCF relate to each other in the following equation:
formula_4
where Z is equal to the Fugacity capacity of a chemical in the fish, P is equal to the density of the fish (mass/length), BCF is the partition coefficient between the fish and the water (length/mass) and H is equal to the Henry's law constant (Length/Time)
Through the use of the PBT Profiler and using criteria set forth by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a substance is considered to be not bioaccumulative if it has a BCF less than 1000, bioaccumulative if it has a BCF from 1000–5000 and very bioaccumulative if it has a BCF greater than 5,000.
The thresholds under REACH are a BCF of > 2000 l/kg bzw. for the B and 5000 l/kg for vB criteria.
A bioconcentration factor greater than 1 is indicative of a hydrophobic or lipophilic chemical. It is an indicator of how probable a chemical is to bioaccumulate. These chemicals have high lipid affinities and will concentrate in tissues with high lipid content instead of in an aqueous environment like the cytosol. Models are used to predict chemical partitioning in the environment which in turn allows the prediction of the biological fate of lipophilic chemicals.
Based on an assumed steady state scenario, the fate of a chemical in a system is modeled giving predicted endpoint phases and concentrations.
It needs to be considered that reaching steady state may need a substantial amount of time as estimated using the following equation (in hours).
formula_5
For a substance with a log(K) of 4, it thus takes approximately five days to reach effective steady state. For a log(K) of 6, the equilibrium time increases to nine months.
Fugacity is another predictive criterion for equilibrium among phases that has units of pressure. It is equivalent to partial pressure for most environmental purposes. It is the absconding propensity of a material. BCF can be determined from output parameters of a fugacity model and thus used to predict the fraction of chemical immediately interacting with and possibly having an effect on an organism.
If organism-specific fugacity values are available, it is possible to create a food web model which takes trophic webs into consideration. This is especially pertinent for conservative chemicals that are not easily metabolized into degradation products. Biomagnification of conservative chemicals such as toxic metals can be harmful to apex predators like orca whales, osprey, and bald eagles.
Bioconcentration factors facilitate predicting contamination levels in an organism based on chemical concentration in surrounding water. BCF in this setting only applies to aquatic organisms. Air breathing organisms do not take up chemicals in the same manner as other aquatic organisms. Fish, for example uptake chemicals via ingestion and osmotic gradients in gill lamellae.
When working with benthic macroinvertebrates, both water and benthic sediments may contain chemical that affects the organism. Biota-sediment accumulation factor (BSAF) and biomagnification factor (BMF) also influence toxicity in aquatic environments.
BCF does not explicitly take metabolism into consideration so it needs to be added to models at other points through uptake, elimination or degradation equations for a selected organism.
Chemicals with high BCF values are more lipophilic, and at equilibrium organisms will have greater concentrations of chemical than other phases in the system. Body burden is the total amount of chemical in the body of an organism, and body burdens will be greater when dealing with a lipophilic chemical.
In determining the degree at which bioconcentration occurs biological factors have to be kept in mind.The rate at which an organism is exposed through respiratory surfaces and contact with dermal surfaces of the organism, competes against the rate of excretion from an organism. The rate of excretion is a loss of chemical from the respiratory surface, growth dilution, fecal excretion, and metabolic biotransformation. Growth dilution is not an actual process of excretion but due to the mass of the organism increasing while the contaminant concentration remains constant dilution occurs.
The interaction between inputs and outputs is shown here:
formula_6
The variables are defined as:
Cis the concentration in the organism (g*kg).
t represents a unit of time (d).
k is the rate constant for chemical uptake from water at the respiratory surface (L*kg*d).
C is the chemical concentration dissolved in water (g*L).
k,k,k,k are rate constants that represent excretion from the organism from the respiratory surface, fecal excretion, metabolic transformation, and growth dilution (d).
Static variables influence BCF as well. Because organisms are modeled as bags of fat, lipid to water ratio is a factor that needs to be considered. Size also plays a role as the surface to volume ratio influence the rate of uptake from the surrounding water. The species of concern is a primary factor in influencing BCF values due to it determining all of the biological factors that alter a BCF.
Temperature may affect metabolic transformation, and bioenergetics. An example of this is the movement of the organism may change as well as rates of excretion. If a contaminant is ionic, the change in pH that is influenced by a change in temperature may also influence the bioavailability
The natural particle content as well as organic carbon content in water can affect the bioavailability. The contaminant can bind to the particles in the water, making uptake more difficult, as well as become ingested by the organism. This ingestion could consist of contaminated particles which would cause the source of contamination to be from more than just water.
| 35741423 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35741423 |
Natural_sciences | Kantowski–Sachs metric
In general relativity the Kantowski-Sachs metric (named after Ronald Kantowski and Rainer K. Sachs) describes a homogeneous but anisotropic universe whose spatial section has the topology of formula_1. The metric is:
The isometry group of this spacetime is formula_3. Remarkably, the isometry group does not act simply transitively on spacetime, nor does it possess a subgroup with simple transitive action.
| 35752296 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35752296 |
Natural_sciences | Richard S. Boardman
Richard S. Boardman was an American paleontologist and curator of the Department of Paleobiology at the United States National Museum (now the National Museum of Natural History). Boardman worked for the museum from 1957 to 1985 and subsequently became a founding member of the International Bryozoology Association (IBA). Boardman is best known for the hard/soft thin-sectioning technique that he developed in order to compare the internal morphology of living and fossilized bryozoans which have revealed new information about bryozoan life history.
| 35760811 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35760811 |
Natural_sciences | Mackenzie Gordon Jr.
Mackenzie Gordon Jr. (1913–1992) was an American invertebrate paleontologist. He was an expert on Carboniferous fossils. Gordon worked for the United States Geological Survey for 40 years, from 1941–1981. He was a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History from 1981 to his death in 1992.
| 35760852 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35760852 |
Natural_sciences | Janez Matjašič
Janez Matjašič (14 May 1921 – 9 August 1996) was a Slovene zoologist.
Matjašič was an associate member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts from 1974 and a full member from 1989.
Apart from scientific contributions he also wrote two popular science books "Nevidno življenje" (Invisible Life) and "Iz življenja najmanjših" (From the Lives of the Smallest). For the latter he won the Levstik Award in 1956.
| 35764931 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35764931 |
Natural_sciences | Bates–Guggenheim Convention
In chemistry, the Bates–Guggenheim Convention refers to a conventional method based on the Debye–Hückel theory to determine pH standard values.
| 35769512 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35769512 |
Natural_sciences | Vincent Moncrief
Vincent Edward Moncrief is an American mathematician and physicist at Yale University. He works in relativity and mathematical physics. Moncrief earned his doctorate in 1972 at the University of Maryland College Park under the supervision of Charles William Misner and worked subsequently at the University of California Berkeley and at the University of Utah. He grew up in Oklahoma City.
A key result (obtained jointly with Arthur Fischer of the University of California at Santa Cruz) was to relate the reduced Hamiltonian for Einstein's equations to a topological invariant known as the Yamabe invariant (or sigma constant) for the spatial manifold and to show that the reduced Hamiltonian is monotonically decreasing along all solutions of the field equations (in the direction of cosmological expansion) and therefore evidently seeking to attain its infimum which in turn is expressible in terms of the sigma constant. A discussion of this and related work (with Lars Andersson of the University of Miami and Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat of the Université Paris VI) may be found in Moncrief's and Choquet-Bruhat's lectures at the Cargese summer school on 50 years of the Cauchy Problem in General Relativity.
Moncrief's own research is mainly concerned with the global existence and asymptotic properties of cosmological solutions of Einstein's equations and especially the question of how these properties depend upon the topology of spacetime. He is also interested in how a study of the "Einstein flow" on various manifolds might shed light on open questions in 3-manifold topology itself. Most of this research involves the treatment of sufficiently small but nevertheless fully non-linear perturbations of certain special backgrounds and includes an analysis of higher as well as lower-dimensional spacetimes in addition to physical (3 + 1)-dimensional spacetime.
| 35783189 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35783189 |
Natural_sciences | Jeans's theorem
In astrophysics and statistical mechanics, Jeans's theorem, named after James Jeans, states that any steady-state solution of the collisionless Boltzmann equation depends on the phase space coordinates only through integrals of motion in the given potential, and conversely any function of the integrals is a steady-state solution.
Jeans's theorem is most often discussed in the context of potentials characterized by three, global integrals. In such potentials, all of the orbits are regular, i.e. non-chaotic; the Kepler potential is one example. In generic potentials, some orbits respect only one or two integrals and the corresponding motion is chaotic. Jeans's theorem can be generalized to such potentials as follows:
The phase-space density of a stationary stellar system is constant within every well-connected region.
A well-connected region is one that cannot be decomposed into two finite regions such that all trajectories lie, for all time, in either one or the other. Invariant tori of regular orbits are such regions, but so are the more complex parts of phase space associated with chaotic trajectories. Integrability of the motion is therefore not required for a steady state.
| 35784363 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35784363 |
Natural_sciences | Function-spacer-lipid Kode construct
Function-Spacer-Lipid (FSL) Kode constructs (Kode Technology) are amphiphatic, water dispersible biosurface engineering constructs that can be used to engineer the surface of cells, viruses and organisms, or to modify solutions and non-biological surfaces with bioactives. FSL Kode constructs spontaneously and stably incorporate into cell membranes. FSL Kode constructs with all these aforementioned features are also known as Kode Constructs. The process of modifying surfaces with FSL Kode constructs is known as "koding" and the resultant "koded" cells, viruses and liposomes are respectively known as kodecytes, and kodevirions.
All living surfaces are decorated with a diverse range of complex molecules, which are key modulators of chemical communications and other functions such as protection, adhesion, infectivity, apoptosis, etc. Functional-Spacer-Lipid (FSL) Kode constructs can be synthesized to mimic the bioactive components present on biological surfaces, and then re-present them in novel ways.
The architecture of an FSL Kode construct, as implicit in the name, consists of three components - a functional head group, a spacer, and a lipid tail. This structure is analogous to a Lego minifigure in that, they have three structural components, with each component having a separate purpose. In the examples shown in all the figures, a Lego 'minifig' has been used for the analogy. However, it should be appreciated that this is merely a representation and the true structural similarity is significantly varied between Lego minifigures and FSL Kode constructs "(fig 1)". The functional group of an FSL is equivalent to a Lego minifigure head, with both being at the extremity and carrying the character functional components. The spacer of the FSL is equivalent to the body of the Lego minifigure and the arms on the minifigure are representative of substitutions which may be engineered into the chemical makeup of the spacer. The lipid of the FSL anchors it to lipid membranes and gives the FSL construct its amphiphatic nature which can cause it to self-assemble. Because the lipid tail can act directly as an anchor it is analogous to the legs of a Lego minifigure.
The functional group, the spacer and the lipid tail components of the FSL Kode construct can each be individually designed resulting in FSL Kode constructs with specific biological functions. The functional head group is usually the bioactive component of the construct and the various spacers and lipids influence and effect its presentation, orientation and location on a surface. Critical to the definition of an FSL Kode construct is the requirement to be dispersible in water, and spontaneously and stably incorporate into cell membranes. Other lipid bioconjugates that include components similar to FSLs but do not have these features are not termed as Function-Spacer-Lipid Kode constructs.
A large range of functional groups have already been made into FSL Kode constructs. These include:
"Note 1: Multimeric – the presentation of the F residue can be as multimers with controlled spacing and be variable."
"Note 2: Mass – the mass that can be anchored by an FSL Kode constructs can range from 200 to >1x10 Da"
The spacer is an integral part of the FSL Kode construct and gives it several important characteristics including water dispersibility.
The lipid tail is essential for enabling lipid membrane insertion and retention but also for giving the construct amphiphilic characteristics that enable hydrophilic surface coating (due to formation of bilipid layers). Different membrane lipids that can be used to create FSLs have different membrane physiochemical characteristics and thus can affect biological function of the FSL. Lipids in FSL Kode constructs include:
One of the important functions of an FSL construct is that it can optimise the presentation of antigens, both on cell surfaces and solid-phase membranes. This optimisation is achieved primarily by the spacer, and secondarily by the lipid tail. In a typical immunoassay, the antigen is deposited directly onto the microplate surface and binds to the surface either in a random fashion, or in a preferred orientation depending on the residues present on the surface of this antigen. Usually this deposition process is uncontrolled. In contrast, the FSL Kode construct bound to a microplate presents the antigen away from the surface in an orientation with a high level of exposure to the environment. Furthermore, typical immunoassays use recombinant peptides rather than discrete peptide antigens. As the recombinant peptide is many times bigger than the epitope of interest, a lot of undesired and unwanted peptide sequences are also represented on the microplate. These additional sequences may include unwanted microbial related sequences (as determined by a BLAST analysis) that can cause issues of low level cross-reactivity. Often the mechanism by which an immunoassay is able to overcome this low level activity is to dilute the serum so that the low level microbial reactive antibodies are not seen, and only high-level specific antibodies result in an interpretable result. In contrast, FSL Kode constructs usually use specifically selected peptide fragments (up to 40 amino acids), thereby overcoming cross-reactivity with microbial sequences, and allowing for the use of undiluted serum (which increases sensitivity).
The F component can be further enhanced by presentation of it in multimeric formats and with specific spacing. The four types of multimeric format include linear repeating units, linear repeating units with spacing, clusters, and branching "(Fig. 4)".
The FSL Kode construct by nature of its composition in possessing both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions are amphiphilic (or amphipathic). This characteristic determines the way in which the construct will interact with surfaces. When present in a solution they may form simple micelles or adopt more complex bilayer structures with two simplistic examples shown in "Fig. 5a". More complex structures are expected. The actual nature of FSL micelles has not been determined. However, based on normal structural function of micelles, it is expected that it will be determined in part by the combination of functional group, spacer and lipid together with temperature, concentration, size and hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity for each FSL Kode construct type.
Surface coatings will occur via two theoretical mechanisms, the first being direct hydrophobic interaction of the lipid tail with a hydrophobic surface resulting in a monolayer of FSL at the surface "(Fig. 5b)". Hydrophobic binding of the FSL will be via its hydrophobic lipid tail interacting directly with the hydrophobic (lipophilic) surface. The second surface coating will be through the formation of bilayers as the lipid tail is unable to react with the hydrophilic surface. In this case the lipids will induce the formation of a bilayer, the surface of which will be hydrophilic. This hydrophilic membrane will then interact directly with the hydrophilic surface and will probably encapsulate fibres. This hydrophilic bilayer binding is the expected mechanism by which FSLs are able to bind to fibrous membranes such as paper and glass fibres "(Fig. 5c)" and "(Fig. 9)".
After labeling of the surface with the selected F bioactive(s) the constructs will be present and orientated at the membrane surface. It is expected that the FSL will be highly mobile within the membrane and the choice of lipid tail will effect is relative partitioning within the membrane. The construct unless it has flip-flop behavior is expected to remain surface presented. However, the modification is not permanent in living cells and constructs will be lost (consumed) at a rate proportional to the activity at the membrane and division rate of the cell (with dead cells remaining highly labeled). Additionally, when present "in vivo" with serum lipids FSLs will elute from the membrane into the plasma at a rate of about 1% per hour. In fixed cells or inactive cells (e.g. red cells) stored in serum free media the constructs are retained normally.
Liposomes are easy koded by simply adding FSL Kode constructs into the preparation. Contacting koded liposomes with microplates or other surfaces can cause the labeling of the microplate surface.
Non-biologic surface coatings will occur via two mechanisms, the first being direct hydrophobic interaction of the lipid tail with a hydrophobic surface resulting in a monolayer of FSL at the surface. The second surface coating will be through the formation of bilayers, which probably either encapsulate fibres or being via the hydrophilic F group. This is the expected mechanism by which FSLs bind to fibrous membranes such as paper and glass fibres. A recent study has found that when FSL Kode constructs are optimised, could in a few seconds glycosylate almost any non-biological surface including metals, glass, plastics, rubbers, and other polymers.
The technological features of FSL Kode constructs and the koding process can be summarized as follows:
FSL constructs have a wide range of uses and they have been used to modify the following:
FSL constructs, when in solution (saline) and in contact, will spontaneously incorporate into cell and virus membranes. The methodology involves simply preparing a solution of FSL construct(s) in the range of 1–1000 μg/mL. The actual concentration will depend on the construct and the quantity of construct required in the membrane. One part of FSL solution is added to one part of cells (up to 100% suspension) and they are incubated at a set temperature within the range of 4–37 °C (39–99 °F) depending on temperature compatibility of the cells being modified. The higher the temperature, the faster the rate of FSL insertion into the membrane. For red blood cells, at 37 °C incubation for 2 hours achieves >95% insertion with at least 50% insertion being achieved within 20 minutes. In general, FSL insertion time of 4 hours at room temperature or 20 hours at 4 °C gives results similar to 1 hour at 37 °C for carbohydrate based FSLs inserting into red blood cells. The resultant kodecytes or kodevirions do not required to be washed, however this option should be considered if an excess of FSL construct is used in the koding process.
FSL Kode constructs have been used for research and development, diagnostic products, and are currently being investigated as potential therapeutic agents.
FSL have been used to create human red cell kodecytes that have been used to detect and identify blood group allo-antibodies as ABO sub-group mimics, ABO quality control systems, serologic teaching kits and a syphilis diagnostic. Kodecytes have also demonstrated that FSL-FLRO4 is a suitable reagent for labelling packed red blood cells (PRBC) at any point during routine storage and look to facilitate the development of immunoassays and transfusion models focused on addressing the mechanisms involved in tansfusion-related immunomodulation (TRIM). Murine kodecytes have been experimentally used to determine "in vivo" cell survival, and create model transfusion reactions. Zebrafish kodecytes have been used to determine real time "in vivo" cell migration. Kodecytes have been used to create influenza diagnostics. Kodecytes which have been modified with FSL-GB3 were unable to be infected with the HIV virus.
Kodevirions are FSL modified viruses. Several FSL Kode constructs have been used to label viruses to assist in their flow-cytometric visualisation and to track them real time distribution in animal models. They have also been used to modify the surface of viruses with the intention of targeting them to be used to attach tumors (oncolytic).
Kodesomes are liposomes that have been decorated with FSL Kode constructs. These have been used to deposit FSL constructs onto microplates to create diagnostic assays. They also have the potential for therapeutic use.
These are solutions containing FSL Kode constructs where the construct will exist as a clear micellular dispersion. FSL-GB3 as a solution/gel has been used to inhibit HIV infection and to neutralise Shiga toxin. FSL blood group A as a solution has been used to neutralise circulating antibodies in a mouse model and allow incompatible blood group A (murine kodecytes) transfusion. This model experiment was used to demonstrate the potential of FSLs to neutralise circulating antibody and allow for incompatible blood transfusion or organ transplantation.
All FSL Kode constructs disperse in water and are therefore compatible with inkjet printers. FSL constructs can be printed with a standard desktop inkjet printer directly onto paper to create immunoassays. An empty ink cartridge is filled with an FSL construct and words, barcodes, or graphics are printed. A Perspex template is adhered to the surface to create reaction wells. The method is then a standard EIA procedure, but blocking of serum is not required and undiluted serum can be used. A typical procedure is as follows: add serum, incubate, wash by immersion, add secondary EIA conjugate, incubate, wash, add NBT/BCIP precipitating substrate and stop the reaction when developed by washing "(Fig. 9)". The end result is stable for years.
| 35823031 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35823031 |
Natural_sciences | Fourmarierite
Fourmarierite is a secondary uranium-lead mineral. It was named for the Belgian geologist Paul Fourmarier (1877–1970). Its chemical formula is Pb(UO)O(OH)•4HO.
| 35828084 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35828084 |
Natural_sciences | Angelo Andres
Angelo "Ginobili" Andres (24 March 1851, Tirano –16 July 1934, Milan) was an Italian zoologist.
Dr. Angelo Andres studied natural history in Pavia, Leipzig, London and Paris. He became a Professor in Moderna. From 1899–1926 he was director of Museo di Storia Naturale in Parma. He was a friend of Anton Dohrn.
Andres was a supporter of Darwinism and gave anniversary lectures supporting his ideas.
| 35828206 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35828206 |
Natural_sciences | Sulfido
Sulfido refers to the ligand species S. There is only one donor atom present in this ligand which is sulfur.
| 35828754 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35828754 |
Natural_sciences | WISE J004945.61+215120.0
WISE J004945.61+215120.0 is a brown dwarf of spectral class T8.5, located in constellation Andromeda at approximately 24 light-years from Earth.
WISE J004945.61+215120.0 was discovered in 2012 by Mace et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite — NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In 2013, the discovery paper was published.
Trigonometric parallax of WISE J004945.61+215120.0 is not yet measured. Therefore, there are only distance estimates of this object, obtained by indirect — spectrofotometric — means (see table).
WISE J004945.61+215120.0 distance estimates
| 35835795 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835795 |
Natural_sciences | WISE J031624.35+430709.1
WISE J031624.35+430709.1 is a brown dwarf of spectral class T8, located in constellation Perseus at approximately 106 light-years from Earth. It is one of the furthest T-class brown dwarfs known.
WISE J031624.35+430709.1 was discovered in 2012 by Mace et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite — NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In March 2013, the discovery paper was published.
Trigonometric parallax of WISE J031624.35+430709.1 is not yet measured. Therefore, there are only distance estimates of this object, obtained by indirect — spectrofotometric — means (see table).
WISE J031624.35+430709.1 distance estimates
| 35835799 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835799 |
Natural_sciences | WISE J0005+3737
WISE J0005+3737, full designation WISE J000517.48+373720.5, is a brown dwarf of spectral class T9, located in constellation Andromeda at approximately 23 light-years from Earth.
WISE J0005+3737 was discovered in 2012 by Mace et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite — NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. The discovery paper was published in March 2013.
Trigonometric parallax of WISE J0005+3737 is not yet measured. Therefore, there are only distance estimates of this object, obtained by indirect — spectrophotometric — means (see table).
WISE J0005+3737 distance estimates
| 35835864 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835864 |
Natural_sciences | WISE 0146+4234
WISE J014656.66+423410.0 (designation abbreviated to WISE 0146+4234) is a binary brown dwarf of spectral classes T9 and Y0 located in the constellation Andromeda. It is approximately 60 light-years from Earth..
WISE 0146+4234 was discovered in 2012 by J. Davy Kirkpatrick et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite — NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In 2012 Kirkpatrick et al. published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, where they presented discovery of seven new found by WISE brown dwarfs of spectral type Y, among which also was WISE 0146+4234.
The distance of WISE 0146+4234 was initially estimated to be 20 light-years from earth. Later measurements of its stellar parallax showed that it was actually 60 light-years away.
The other six discoveries of brown dwarfs, published in Kirkpatrick et al. (2012):
| 35835908 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835908 |
Natural_sciences | WISE 0359−5401
WISE J035934.06−540154.6 (designation abbreviated to WISE 0359−5401) is a brown dwarf of spectral class Y0, located in constellation Reticulum. Estimated to be approximately 22.5 light-years from Earth, it is one of the Sun's nearest neighbors.
WISE 0359−5401 was discovered in 2012 by J. Davy Kirkpatrick and colleagues from data collected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in the infrared at a wavelength of 40 cm (16 in), whose mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In 2012 Kirkpatrick et al. published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, where they presented discovery of seven new found by WISE brown dwarfs of spectral type Y, among which also was WISE 0359−5401.
The trigonometric parallax of WISE 0359−5401 is arcsec, corresponding to a direct inversion distance of , or .
The other six discoveries of brown dwarfs, published in "Kirkpatrick et al. (2012)":
| 35835912 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835912 |
Natural_sciences | WISE 0713−2917
WISE J071322.55−291751.9 (designation abbreviated to WISE 0713−2917) is a brown dwarf of spectral class Y0, located in constellation Canis Major at approximately 23 light-years from Earth.
WISE 0713−2917 was discovered in 2012 by J. Davy Kirkpatrick and colleagues from data collected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) in the infrared at a wavelength of 40 cm (16 in), whose mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In 2012 Kirkpatrick et al. published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, where they presented discovery of seven new found by WISE brown dwarfs of spectral type Y, among which also was WISE 0713−2917.
Trigonometric parallax of WISE 0713−2917 is not yet measured. Therefore, there are only distance estimates of this object, obtained by indirect—spectrophotometric—means (see table).
WISE 0713−2917 distance estimates
The other six discoveries of brown dwarfs, published in Kirkpatrick et al. (2012):
| 35835955 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835955 |
Natural_sciences | WISE 0734−7157
WISE J073444.02−715744.0 (designation abbreviated to WISE 0734−7157) is a brown dwarf of spectral class Y0, located in constellation Volans at approximately 35 light-years from Earth. It is one of the furthest Y0 brown dwarfs known.
WISE 0734−7157 was discovered in 2012 by J. Davy Kirkpatrick et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite — NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In 2012 Kirkpatrick et al. published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, where they presented discovery of seven new found by WISE brown dwarfs of spectral type Y, among which also was WISE 0734−7157.
Trigonometric parallax of WISE 0734−7157 is not yet measured. Therefore, there are only distance estimates of this object, obtained by indirect — spectrofotometric — means (see table).
WISE 0734−7157 distance estimates
The other six discoveries of brown dwarfs, published in Kirkpatrick et al. (2012):
| 35835956 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835956 |
Natural_sciences | WISE 2220−3628
WISE J222055.31−362817.4 (designation abbreviated to WISE 2220−3628) is a brown dwarf of spectral class Y0, located in constellation Grus at approximately 26 light-years from Earth.
WISE 2220−3628 was discovered in 2012 by J. Davy Kirkpatrick et al. from data, collected by Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite — NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, which mission lasted from December 2009 to February 2011. In 2012 Kirkpatrick et al. published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, where they presented discovery of seven new found by WISE brown dwarfs of spectral type Y, among which also was WISE 2220−3628.
Y-class dwarfs are among the coldest of all brown dwarfs.
Trigonometric parallax of WISE 2220−3628 is not yet measured. Therefore, there are only distance estimates of this object, obtained by indirect — spectrofotometric — means (see table).
| 35835958 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35835958 |
Natural_sciences | Beau Sancy
The Beau Sancy is a modified "pear double rose cut" diamond found in India that has been owned by a number of European royal houses. In May 2012, it was sold at Sotheby's auction in Geneva for $9.57 million. The original estimated price of $2 million was lifted five times during the eight-minute battle between five buyers, before the diamond was sold to one of them who remained anonymous.
The Beau Sancy diamond takes its name from Nicolas de Harlay, Lord of Sancy, who brought the diamond to France from India where he had been the French ambassador. Its larger sibling diamond, the Grand Sancy, was sold to James I of England for his Queen, Henrietta Maria. The Beau Sancy was acquired by the Queen of France, Marie de Medicis.
From Marie de Medicis, it passed to the Dutch King William, later William III of England, and his wife Queen Mary II. In 1701 it passed from the Dutch royal family to Frederick I of Prussia.
| 35839423 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35839423 |
Natural_sciences | Bacteriophage PBC1
Bacteriophage PBC1 is a bacteriophage that infects the spore-forming bacterium "Bacillus cereus". Though this lytic phage is a member of "Siphoviridae", its genome sequence shows little similarity to those of other sequenced phages.
| 35841019 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35841019 |
Natural_sciences | New York orthohantavirus
New York orthohantavirus or New York virus is an "Orthohantavirus". It is considered a strain of "Sin Nombre orthohantavirus". It was first isolated from a white-footed mouse ("Peromyscus leucopus") caught on an island off New York. The virus is associated with typical hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
| 35857252 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35857252 |
Natural_sciences | Bayou orthohantavirus
Bayou orthohantavirus (BAYV) is a species of "Orthohantavirus" first identified in 1993 in Louisiana.
indicating the virus to be widespread throughout the Southeastern United States. BAYV infection causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) and represents the second most common hantavirus in the United States behind the "Sin Nombre orthohantavirus".
| 35857254 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35857254 |
Natural_sciences | Nigel Morritt Wace
Nigel Morritt Wace (10 January 1929 India – 4 February 2005 Canberra, Australia) was an authority on the plant life of the four Tristan da Cunha Islands, islands he first visited in 1955 when he visited Gough Island. He was educated at Brambletye School, then Sheikh Bagh Preparatory School in Kashmir, then school in Cheltenham, followed by a period as a commissioned officer in the Royal Marines form where he was invalided out in 1947, progressing to Brasenose College, Oxford.
At Brasenose Wace read Agricultural Economics, switching to Botany. His later work on Tristan da Cunha led to his PhD thesis on the vegetation of Gough Island, received from Queen's University, Belfast.
Wace's periods in Tristan da Cunha started with his membership as botanist of the Gough Island Scientific Survey from 1955–56.
In Australia Wace made a substantial contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, both in settled parts and in the outback.
Wace married Margaret White with whom he had a son and two daughters. Wace's family claims descent from Wace, the 12th-century Jerseyman and chronicler of the House of Normandy.
He was employed by the Geography department of Adelaide University, moving later to the Australian National University at Canberra where he was initially a lecturer subsequently head of the university's department of Biogeography and Geomorphology.
| 35871518 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35871518 |
Natural_sciences | NGC 321
NGC 321 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Cetus.
It was discovered on September 27, 1864, by the astronomer Albert Marth.
It was the location of the planet Eminiar VII in the original series "" episode "A Taste of Armageddon" (where it was incorrectly identified as a star cluster).
| 35877597 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35877597 |
Natural_sciences | André Léon Tonnoir
André Léon Tonnoir (9 April 1885 – 30 January 1940), was a Belgian entomologist.
Born in Brussels, Tonnoir studied engineering followed by radiology at university. He worked as a technician during World War I, and after the war had ended he worked with the entomology staff at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. Tonnoir focused in the area of Diptera and worked for the museum until 1921.
He was then persuaded by Robert Tillyard to visit Australia for entomology work there. Soon afterwards, he left for Nelson in New Zealand to do research for the Cawthron Institute until 1924. In the same year, he moved to Christchurch for two new roles; curator at the Canterbury Museum and lecturer at Canterbury College. In 1926, he went back to work for three years at the Cawthron Institute as part of their noxious weeds programme. He eventually went back to Australia, working in Canberra as a Senior Ecologist and Curator. In Canberra he ate a lot of ice cream, and therefore they called him the "ICE-KING".
| 35879709 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35879709 |
Natural_sciences | Renkonen similarity index
The Renkonen similarity index (P), is a measure of dissimilarity between two communities (sites), based on relative (proportional) abundances formula_1 of individuals of composite species. It was developed by the botanist Olavi Renkonen and published in 1938.
The codomain of this distance function ranges from 1 (identical proportional abundances) to 0 (no taxa shared).
| 35898747 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35898747 |
Natural_sciences | Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India
The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) is a proposed regulatory body in India for uses of biotechnology products including genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The institute was first suggested under the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) draft bill prepared by the Department of Biotechnology in 2008. Since then, it has undergone several revisions.
The bill has faced opposition from farmer groups and anti-GMO activists.
On 23 January 2003, India ratified the Cartagena Protocol which protects biodiversity from potential risks of genetically modified organisms, the products of modern biotechnology. The protocol requires setting up of a regulatory body. Currently, the Genetic Engineering Approvals Committee, a body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests (India) is responsible for approval of genetically engineered products in India. If the bill is passed, the responsibility will be taken over by the Environment Appraisal Panel, a sub-division of the BRAI.
According to the bill, BRAI will have a Chairperson, two full-time members and two part-time members; all will be required to have expertise in life sciences and biotechnology in agriculture, health care, environment and general biology. The bill also proposes setting up an inter-ministerial governing body, to oversee the performance of BRAI, and a National Biotechnology Advisory Council of stakeholders to provide feedback on the use of biotechnology products and organisms in the society. The regulatory body will be an autonomous and statutory agency to regulate the research, transport, import, and manufacture biotechnology products and organisms.
Suman Sahai, founder of the Gene Campaign, has called the bill flawed. According to her, the bill is proposing new institutes without clearly defining their powers and responsibilities. She has also stated that the bill was introduced without consulting the people who will be affected by the bill.
P. M. Bhargava, founder of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, has also opposed the bill. He has called the bill unconstitutional, as agricultural policy is the domain of state governments. He pointed out that the bill proposes formation of several subdivisions and has argued that they will consist of bureaucrats with no scientific knowledge. He has accused the Department of Biotechnology, which will be involved in selection of members, as a promoter of genetic technology in India. He has pointed out that the broadly defined term "confidential commercial information" has been kept outside the purview of the Right to Information Act. He had stated that the bill uses vague wordings which would criminalize sequencing or isolation of DNA and PCR techniques, requiring approval for each usage. Thus, hindering research and education. He pointed out the bill has no provision for mandatory labelling of GM foods. He criticized giving the body power to punish parties making false or misleading statements about GM crops, calling it unprecedented.
In September 2010, Jairam Ramesh, then Environment Minister, pointed out that the body is only deals with safety and efficacy of biotechnology products. The issue of commercialization has been left unaddressed. The decisions regarding commercialization can fall under the purview of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, or Department of Science and Technology.
On the other hand, Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) has supported the bill. J.S. Rehman, an entomologist and a former member of the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, has stated that most protesters associate genetic engineering with Monsanto, as a result development of Indian biotech is being hindered.
| 35911437 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35911437 |
Natural_sciences | Bio Base Europe
Bio Base Europe is an innovation and training center for the biobased economy. It is a platform that supports the development of sustainable, biobased products such as bio-chemicals, bio-plastics, bio-materials, bio-detergents, bio-energy, etc. from renewable biomass resources. Its mission is to stimulate sustainable development and economic growth by facilitating R&D and training for biobased process development. It consists of a Pilot Plant for the biobased economy located in the port of Ghent (Belgium), and a Training Center for the biobased economy in Terneuzen (Netherlands).
On December 12, 2008, Europe, Flanders and the Netherlands have allocated €21 million to the Interreg IV project Bio Base Europe. Bio Base Europe is the largest Interreg project ever granted to the Dutch-Flemish border region. The founding fathers are Ghent Bio-Energy Valley and Bio Park Terneuzen. In 2009, Bio Base Europe has been awarded the Sail of Papenburg prize for best innovative project by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR).
Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant is a pilot test facility for the biobased economy, built with the aim to close the gap between scientific feasibility and industrial application. It operates from kg to ton scale. The pilot plant hosts a range of process equipment to scale up biobased processes to industrial scale. Tests done in the pilot plant enable to assess operating costs, specific strengths and weaknesses of new biobased processes before costly, large-scale investments in production plant facilities are made. Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant has no industrial shareholders, and operates according to the open innovation service model. Companies and research centres throughout the world that are active in the biobased economy can access these facilities for their technological developments.
The processes done in the pilot plant can be divided into the following categories
1. Biorefining: Biomass fractionation and pretreatment
2. Industrial biotechnology
3. Green chemistry
4. Downstream processing
In the biorefining operations, biomass can be fractionated in its various parts. These operations involve a.o. milling and pulping, dispersion, homogenizing, physical separation such as centrifugation and decantation, filtration including dead end particulate filtration and cross flow membrane filtration,… Biomass can also be pretreated prior to enzymatic hydrolysis, involving pulping and homogenisation reactions, jet cooking, acid or alcaline treatment, steam explosion, etc.
White or industrial biotechnology processes involves the use of microorganisms and their enzymes in so-called fermentation processes or biocatalytic reactions. Fermentations can be performed from 1 to 15.000 litre scale and involve both batch, fed batch or continuous operations. Reactors for enzymatic reactions are present that can be used with either water of organic solvents.
Green chemistry is performed in explosion proof installations such as glass-lined chemical reactors (1 - 6.000 l scale) that are suited to perform under vacuum or under pressure. The Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant is also equipped with filter dryers for solvent extraction of liquids and solids.
Downstream processing for the recovery of pure products after biochemical or chemical conversion involves various equipment for extraction, evaporation, demineralization, ion exchange, carbon treatment, crystallization, spray drying, lyophilisation, etc.
Continuous process lines can be built up by connecting unit operations with mobile positive and centrifugal pumps, heat exchangers, dosing pumps, flexible and fixed piping and instrumentation.
The Bio Base Europe Training Center is an education, network and exhibition center promoting the development of a sustainable biobased economy. It offers general and company-specific training and connects closely with the market demand.
The Bio Base Europe Training Center works according to the one-stop-shop concept. The training center offers companies a wide range of trainings for their process operators and technical staff. For example, a training portfolio can be used by logging into a web-based learning management system. Furthermore, specific training and a full training program for technical staff are offered and support in hiring new process operators can be obtained. In addition, the Bio Base Europe Training Center is developing dynamic process simulators which can be used for the training of operators.
| 35911445 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35911445 |
Natural_sciences | Filamentous bacteriophage fd
Filamentous bacteriophage fd is a type of filamentous bacteriophage known to infect "Escherichia coli". It shares many structural and genomic similarities with Enterobacteria phage M13.
Phage fd engineered to display immunogenic peptides may be useful as vaccines.
| 35913168 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35913168 |
Natural_sciences | Available space theory
In botany, Available space theory, also known as "first available space theory", is a theory used to explain why most plants have an alternating leaf pattern on their stems. The theory states that the location of a new leaf on a stem is determined by the physical space between existing leaves. In other words, the location of a new leaf on a growing stem is directly related to the amount of space between the previous two leaves. Building on ideas first put forth by Hoffmeister in 1868, Snow and Snow hypothesized in 1947 that leaves sprouted in the first available space on the stem.
| 35924364 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35924364 |
Natural_sciences | Repulsion theory
In botany, Repulsion theory is a theory that is used to explain how plants regulate the distance between new budding leaves on a stem. The theory states that each leaf on a stem secretes a substance that inhibits growth of a new leaf. A new leaf will only grow a certain distance away from the previous leaf where the concentration of the substance reaches a lower level. Although no inhibitors have yet been discovered, the theory is supported by several surgical and modeling experiments.
| 35924454 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35924454 |
Natural_sciences | Frank White (botanist)
Frank White (5 March 1927 – 12 September 1994) was a botanist who was an expert on African flora and curator of the herbarium at the University of Oxford.
| 35927777 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35927777 |
Natural_sciences | Wonderful life theory
In biology, the wonderful life theory, also known as contingency theory, postulates that after hundreds of different phyla evolved during the Cambrian period, many of them subsequently became extinct, leaving the relatively few phyla that exist today. The theory was first suggested in 1989 by Stephen Jay Gould in his book "Wonderful Life".
In Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould discusses the iconography of evolution in popular culture and the damaging effects of the march of progress on public understanding of the theory.
The march of progress, Gould argues, has led to the popular interpretation that the evolution of increased mental powers, ultimately culminating in the development of man’s complex brain, is the natural outcome of evolution. Thus, the term “Evolution” is often conflated with a linear progression of life towards ever-increasing mental powers and a “comfortable view of human inevitability and superiority.” Gould argues that the definition of Evolution to professional biologists is “adaptation to changing environments”, not progress, and that the composition of life on the planet is rather a “copiously branching bush, continually pruned by the grim reaper of extinction, not a ladder of predictable progress.” In an error that Gould refers to as “life’s little joke”, he discusses society’s obsession with unsuccessful lineages as “textbook cases” of “evolution”. To elaborate, we consistently seek out “a single line of advance from the true topology of copious branching. In this misguided effort, we are inevitably drawn to branches so near the brink of total annihilation that they retain only one surviving twig. We then view this twig as the acme of upward achievement, rather than the probable last grasp of a richer ancestry.” Gould uses the evolution of the horse to illustrate this point, as the unbroken connection between "Hyracotherium" (formerly called "Eohippus") and "Equus" provides an apparent linear path from simplicity to complexity. The only reason the evolution of horses has become the canonical representation of progressive evolution is because their bush has been extremely unsuccessful. Instead, Gould argues, we should look to bats, antelopes, and rodents as champions of mammalian evolution as they present us with “thousands of twigs on a vigorous bush” and are the true embodiments of evolutionarily successful groups.
Gould argues that the conventional view of evolution, as illustrated by the cone of increasing diversity, is flawed. It is typically assumed that early life is restricted in form, and from this restriction of form follows diversification into the variety of animal life that currently exists. This cone can be visualized as an inverted Christmas tree, with a narrow base and numerous branches proliferating outward into the present day. Gould presents an alternative hypothesis, however, which states that the history of life is better described as “decimation followed by diversification within a few remaining stocks”, represented as a pyramid with a wide base of anatomical disparity that becomes increasingly constrained by natural selection and extinction level events as time moves forward. This is evidenced by the fact that the fossils excavated from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia represent a paleo-ecosystem with much greater anatomical disparity than currently exists and that fewer phyla exist today compared to the Cambrian seas. Gould offers the view that life during the Cambrian explosion quickly proliferated into the diversity of forms seen today due to the availability of numerous ecological niches and was subsequently decimated by extinction level events throughout geological time. He also notes that the survival of groups following extinction events bears no relationship to traditional notions of Darwinian success in normal times. For example,
Ultimately, Gould explains, both the false iconography of the march of progress and our allegiance to the cone of increasing diversity have led us astray in our thinking about trends in evolutionary biology.
The central question proposed by Wonderful Life is that if life initially proliferated into a greater variety of phyla than currently exist and were subsequently decimated by the stochastic grim reaper of extinction, what then can be said about the inevitability of human intelligence and superiority? Additionally, Gould asks what role historical contingencies play in the evolution of life on Earth. It is these central ideas which prompt Gould to propose a thought experiment called “replaying the tape of life.” Its central essence is this: if we rewind the clock and replay the history of life on Earth numerous times, will we consistently see the same outcome that is the reality we experience today? The outcome of this thought experiment has two possible interpretations, elaborated by Gould,
Gould’s opinion, and the central argument of Wonderful Life, is that “any replay of the tape of life would lead evolution down a pathway radically different from the road actually taken.” Additionally, Gould argues, no outcome can be predicated from the start, but the resulting pattern that emerges after replaying the tape of life would be just as interpretable and logical as our current situation.
| 35936877 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35936877 |
Natural_sciences | Biological dark matter
Biological dark matter is an informal term for unclassified or poorly understood genetic material. This genetic material may refer to genetic material produced by unclassified microorganisms. By extension, biological dark matter may also refer to the un-isolated microorganism whose existence can only be inferred from the genetic material that they produce. Some of the genetic material may not fall under the three existing domains of life: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryota; thus, it has been suggested that a possible fourth domain of life may yet to be discovered, although other explanations are also probable. Alternatively, the genetic material may refer to non-coding DNA (so-called "junk DNA") and non-coding RNA produced by known organisms.
Much of the genomic dark matter is thought to originate from ancient transposable elements and from other low-complexity repetitive elements. Uncategorized genetic material is found in humans and in several other organisms. Their phylogenetic novelty could indicate the cellular organisms or viruses from which they evolved.
Up to 99% of all living microorganisms cannot be cultured, so few functional insights exist about the metabolic potential of these organisms.
Sequences that are believed to be derived from unknown microbes are referred to as the ‘Microbial Dark Matter, the ‘Dark Virome’, or ‘Dark Matter Fungi’ Such sequences are not rare. It has been estimated that in material from humans, between 40 and 90% of viral sequences are from Dark Matter. Human blood contains over three thousand different DNA sequences which can not be identified.
Algorithms have been developed that examine sequences for similarities to bacterial 16S RNA sequences, K-mer similarities to known viruses, specific features of codon usage, or for inferring the existence of proteins. These approaches have suggested, for example, the existence of a novel bacteriophage of the microviridae family, and a novel bacterioidales-like phage. Other studies have suggested the existence of 264 new viral genera, discovered in publicly available databases, and a study of human blood suggested that 42% of people have at least one previously unknown virus each, adding up to 19 different new genera. A comprehensive study of DNA sequences from multiple human samples inferred the existence of 4,930 species of microbes of which 77% were previously unreported. Health-related findings include a prophage that might be associated with cirrhosis of the liver, and seven novel sequences from children with type-1 diabetes that have characteristics of viruses. Although they might exist, no organisms that clearly cause human disease have been discovered in the Dark Matter.
| 35942883 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35942883 |
Natural_sciences | LiquiGlide
LiquiGlide is a platform technology which creates slippery, liquid-impregnated surfaces that was developed at the Varanasi Research Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Prof. Kripa Varanasi and his team of students and post doctorals Dave Smith, Rajeev Dhiman, Adam Paxson, Brian Solomon, and Chris Love. Possible applications include improving the flow rate of condiment bottles to avoid food waste, and preventing clogs in gas and oil tubes. The inventors released videos of LiquiGlide being used in ketchup, mayonnaise, jelly, and mustard bottles made of both plastic and glass. The project came in second place in the Business Plan Contest and won the Audience Choice Award at the 2012 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. The company has also raised $25M from investors including Roadmap Capital, Structure Capital, Valia Investments, and Struck Capital.
In March 2015, LiquiGlide signed a deal with Elmer's Products, the first company to use the technology.
| 35943373 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35943373 |
Natural_sciences | Pekka Pyykkö
Veli Pekka Pyykkö (born October 12, 1941) is a Finnish academic. He is professor of Chemistry at the University of Helsinki. From 2009–2012, he was the chairman of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. He is known for his extension to the periodic table of elements, known as the Pyykkö model.
Pekka Pyykkö predicts that the orbital shells will fill up in this order:
He also suggests that period 8 be split into three parts:
The compact version:<br>
Pekka Pyykkö successfully predicted the possibility of a chemical bond between gold and the noble gas xenon, which is usually inert; this bond is known to occur in the cationic complex tetraxenonogold(II) (). He also successfully predicted the possibility of a gold–carbon triple bond.
| 35962306 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35962306 |
Natural_sciences | Robert Sharp (crater)
Robert Sharp is a crater on the planet Mars in the northeastern part of Mare Tyrrhenum quadrangle at . The crater is in diameter and is located about west of Gale Crater (the landing location of NASA's "Curiosity" Mars rover on 6 August 2012). Robert Sharp Crater was named for geologist and planetary scientist Robert P. Sharp in 2012.
| 35975518 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35975518 |
Natural_sciences | Molecular-scale temperature
The molecular-scale temperature is the defining property of the U.S. Standard Atmosphere, 1962. It is defined by the relationship:
This is citation of the Technical Report of USAF from 1967.
| 35981107 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35981107 |
Natural_sciences | Rahe (crater)
Rahe is a crater on the planet Mars in the Tharsis quadrangle, positioned at 25.05° north latitude and 262.52° east longitude, between the volcanoes Ceraunius Tholus and Uranius Tholus. It measures approximately 34 kilometers in diameter and was named after Jürgen Rahe, a German-American astronomer and NASA science program director.
The crater has an elongated shape measuring 35 km by 18 km and is the result of an oblique impact. A channel connects Rahe crater to the vicinity of the summit caldera of Ceraunius Tholus, with an interesting fan-shaped deposit at the lower end.
Rahe Crater is 1 km deep in places, and was created by a low angle impact which is evident by its elongated shape and ejecta deposit in the shape of a “butterfly.”
Rahe Crater is believed to once have held a lake. The lake was formed because heat from the nearby volcano Ceraunius Tholus melted glaciers. Melt water first collected in the caldera of Cerunius Tholus, and then spilled over the caldera rim forming a valley and the lake in Rahe Crater. The valley that carried the water was about 200 m wide. A delta formed where the valley entered Rahe Crater.
This type of event involving volcanic heat melting glaciers is common in Iceland. Eruptions under glaciers are called jökulhlaups and average two each century. Studies of climate change show that many low-latitude regions accumulated large amounts of snow when the climate was different.
| 36002618 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36002618 |
Natural_sciences | Robert S. Young
Robert S. Young is professor of coastal geology at Western Carolina University and director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines.
| 36018256 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=36018256 |